LOVES HIS HOME

Evening Star, Issue 22203, 4 December 1935, Page 14

LOVES HIS HOME

NEW ZEALAND'S FUTURE PRIME MINISTER HIS FRIENDS OF A GENERATION TO LIVE WITH HIM IN WELLINGTON [Pek United Press Association.] ■ AUCKLAND, December 4. Through nearly 30 years of ceaseless work with one common purpose, the cause of Labour, New Zealand’s future Prime Minister and bis friends of a generation, Mr and Mrs A'. J. French, have lived under the same roof. It is no wonder that Mr Savage should insist that his friends live with him in the Molesworth street house in Wellington, which has been the home of Mr Forbes. Over 20 years ago Mr Savage went to live with Mr and Mrs French in Ponsonby, and the three have lived as one household for the past eight years at Herue Bay. Through years of the closest association Mr French has formed the deepest admiration for Mr Savage for his ability and his neverending humanitarian acts.

“ You could not have a better comrade,” said Mr French when interviewed this morning. “ I have never met a finer man than Mr Savage. He would defend the absent all the time, and there has never been one moment of friction between Us all those years. Mr Savage loves his home, also pottering about his little study with the telephone on his desk and his portable typewriter. Ho is thoroughly domesticated, taking a turn at anything about the house. At one time he bought a set of bowls, but has not found time to play. “He has kept himself poor by his generosity. He has always been prepared to help, and never in all the years I have known him has ho once deviated from the course ho is following to-day. His interest in the people who need help most has always been, and still is paramount in his eyes. Mr Savage is not a _ churchgoing man. If you ask him his religion he will say, ‘My religion is my duty to my neighbour.’ He keeps himself fit with a little gardening, running a lawn mower over the many lawns at his home. Occasionally lie uses dumbbells, and can dance a hornpipe or a jig. He is fond of good music, and often listens to the radio in the evening, but he turns off jazz. He is a great reader.” Mr and Mrs French do not know definitely when they will be leaving for Wellington. “We would not like to be away from Mr Savage,” they concluded.